Brookings Banter

"If everything had gone the way it was intended, Brookings just as easily could have become home to the state penitentiary.  The Dakota Agricultural College essentially was a consolation prize.  And even then, not everyone saw the value in a campus of higher education." - The College on the Hill, By Amy Dunkle

Ken Curley's 8/31 article is on track about the politics of Sioux Falls vs. the rest of the state.  But it is important to note that just because someone said the epicenter of research is now Sioux Falls doesn't make it true. 

The Dakota Agricultural College was started as a land grant college in 1881.  Brookings leaders at the time wanted a penitentiary.  Sioux Falls was granted the jail and Brookings was given the College.  Now 126 years later Sioux Falls wants the benefits Brookings has in a land grant college.  Building a campus on a new piece of land doesn't make a research epicenter.  126 years of building research infrastructure makes a research epicenter.  The University Center doesn't have the Ph.D. programs required for research and has no history or areas of expertise, yet.

SDSU and Brookings needs to focus on getting the Innovation Campus completed or Sioux Falls will beat us and the epicenter will move.  Sioux Falls may become another epicenter as it creates it's own areas of expertise, which will help to create an I-29 corridor of research and innovation, benefiting the whole region.